After posting a horrible annual loss, totalling $240 million for 2013, Nintendo’s president, Satoru Iwata, said Nintendo is considering adopting a “new business structure” that could incorporate smartphones. The losses reported by Nintendo are the worst the company has suffered in nine years.

Initial projections saw the company selling 9 million Wii U units by March 2014. Those lofty expectations have now diminished to just 2.8 millions systems, an astounding 69 per cent cut in sales. Sales projections for Nintendo’s portable console, the 3DS, were changed from 18 million to 13.5 million units.

Could Nintendo finally start releasing its games on smartphones? It doesn’t seem possible, but at this point, it could actually happen. Iwata did not expand on what the term “new business structure” will mean for the Japanese gaming giant, other than saying it won’t be as simple as, “enabling Mario to move on a smartphone.”

Nintendo’s struggling home console, the Wiii U.

“Given the expansion of smart devices, we are naturally studying how smart devices can be used to grow the game-player business,” said Iwata during the press conference attended by Bloomberg.

In the past, Nintendo has stated it will not move its flagship games to third-party devices, like the PC, Android or iOS, because this would have a negative impact on the sales of the company’s own hardware, the 3DS and Wii U. Nintendo has experimented with non-game iOS apps in the past though like the Pokedex app.

“The way people use their time, their lifestyles, who they are – have changed. If we stay in one place, we will become outdated,” said Iwata.

I still contend the Wii U is a solid gaming device with a quality, albeit very small, game library. This holiday season I’d even say that the Wii U really was the only console worth buying in terms of price, features and games. Unfortunately for Nintendo, the casual audience that was so enthusiastic about the Wii U’s predecessor, the Wii, has migrated its attention to smartphones and other mobile devices.

While I don’t use the portable console much any more, it’s build up a great library of quality video games over the last year and a half.

Many people already play Nintendo’s back-catalogue of games on Android-based devices through the numerous emulators available on the platform. Figuring out how to play Pokemon Red on your Android phone can take only a few minutes if you download the correct apps. Because Google doesn’t actively monitor what apps are on the Google Play store, it’s easy for emulators to fall through the cracks. With a jailbroken iOS device, emulators are also compatible with Apple’s line of portable devices.

Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 also were released in Nov., taking even more attention away from Nintendo’s struggling console.

As of Sept. 30, the Wii U has sold roughly 3.91 units worldwide. In comparison, according to vgchartz.com, competing consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, have sold 3.1 million and 4.4 million consoles respectively. Despite their console’s struggling sales, two Nintendo developed games, Super Mario 3D World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, were both critically acclaimed and landed on many critics best of 2013 lists.

Sony recently announced PlayStation Now, a cloud-based gaming platform that’s set to eventually stream PlayStation games to a variety of different Sony devices like the company’s Bravia Televisions, Android smartphones and even give the PlayStation 4 backwards compatibility with PS3 titles.

Nintendo recently cut the Wii U’s price tag from $349.99 to $299.99, a cut of $50. The company also introduced the rather weird looking portable 2DS back in October for $129.99.

Personally, I blame Nintendo’s financial trouble on Luigi. It is his year after all, right?